Odisha, WFP join hands for portability in social protection for migrant workers

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government and the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) have signed a technical assistance agreement to strengthen access to social protection for vulnerable migrant workers and their families.

The partnership aims to ensure uninterrupted access to essential services—such as food, health, nutrition, education, and labour schemes—as households move within the state.

The agreement was signed in the presence of Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary Anu Garg and senior officials from the Labour & ESI and Planning & Convergence Departments today.  

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Labour and Employees' State Insurance Department Additional Chief Secretary Chithra Arumugam and Elisabeth Faure, Representative and Country Director of the World Food Programme, India, signed the agreement.

Arumugam highlighted the state government’s commitment to investing in digital systems that enable seamless portability across multiple welfare schemes, ensuring that a child’s access to nutrition and services does not stop at a district border, and that every migrant household can rely on a predictable social protection safety net wherever they are.

Integrated digital platform to track migrant households

“By combining strong government leadership with WFP’s technical expertise and innovation, we aim to strengthen social safety nets, particularly for nutrition, so that migrant women, men, and children can access the food and essential services they need, when and where they need them,” said Elisabeth Faure.  

At the core of this collaboration is the development of an integrated digital platform to track migrant households and enable portability across programmes including PDS, PM POSHAN, ICDS, school enrolment, immunisation, health services, and labour benefits.

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Multi-modal alerts, dashboards, and data analytics will support officials in ensuring timely service delivery. A learning management system is also planned which will build capacities of frontline workers, complemented by public awareness campaigns.

With nearly 100 million migrants in India contributing around 10 per cent of the national GDP, this initiative addresses critical gaps in access to social protection. The pilot project will be implemented in Khordha district, demonstrating a scalable model that can support Odisha’s vision of a coordinated, whole-of-government approach to social protection.